Pseg24 wrote:In need of some advice...
First, sorry to hear on not passing. Even by 1 pt, it sucks. One good thing with your score is that it does give you the fallback option to be licensed somewhere. That still puts you in a better situation than 6 months ago.
You’re also correct - all 3 of Florida’s Federal districts require FL licensure to practice. That guarantees taking another exam. As for your question, you really have three alternatives:
Plan A: (your original Plan A)
Plan B: (your original Plan B)
Plan C: Take FL outright, forget about NY/UBE transfer
Listing below in increasing desirability:
Plan B: Your career intentions almost completely rule it out. Also, financially, it’s the most expensive. The UBE transfer fee for Minnesota is $950. The Florida bar application fee for those not admitted (& not registered as a law student) is $1000 - and that’s if you apply by May 1 (i.e.
in 2 days). After that, it goes up another $325 if filed by June 1 or $625 if filed by June 15. We haven’t even factored in any bar prep (and misc.) expenses. You might as well use the $950 for Florida (see Plan C below).
Gaining admission doesn’t give you any advantage either. You’d still have to pay the $1000, and it goes up the longer you’re admitted. Add to that the doing of a second C&F application, having to list your MN application on your FL one later, and your career intentions, it makes no sense. If you’re really insistent on this option, you might as well do North Dakota. At least the UBE transfer app fee there is only $400.
This only makes sense if you fail July 2018, AND you get a sub-136 MBE score. Your Feb 2018 UBE score is also good for 24-36 mos (depending on the state). You’d still be on track for a Feb 2019 FL exam - you’ll just pay through the nose for it.
Plan C makes sense because of your career plans. You’re going to take another exam anyway, you might as well cut the time and go for Florida. You save 6 months and would be practicing by the end of this year, as opposed to mid-2019.
One problem I see with this is it’s expensive too (see Plan B). Another issue is that unlike the UBE, you have to learn FL distinctions (which means citing them and all that good stuff) for your exam on top of your MBE. That plus Florida’s higher passage mark (272) means it’s that much harder.
Plan A: It sounds like a better option at the moment. You’d be paying much less upfront ($350 if you’re typing, $250 if you’re not). Ironically, for FL you don’t even need to pass NY - just need a 136 MBE (obviously you’d want to pass though). Get that score, MBE xfer, just focus on FL written portion, pass that, move on.
The main drawback = you’re postponing FL for another 6 months (Feb 2019 as opposed to July 2018). But considering that it’s already in your mind, it isn’t as bad.
In short:
Benefits:
Plan A: You’ll save the most $
Plan B: Fallback for July failure + no 136 on MBE
Plan C: You’ll save a lot of time upon passing
Drawbacks:
Plan A: No plan for NY license = 6 mos wasted
Plan B: Upwards of $2-3K - just in app fees
Plan C: Studying for it will be harder, & still expensive
Although I’d recommend Plan A, you’ll need to figure out what’s best for you. Plan accordingly.
My $.02